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I picked out a random house from your Google maps link. The address is 9424 226th Pl NE.
To be clear, I picked this house completely at random, I have no idea who lives there, if anyone.
Ok, now suppose you lived there and you wanted
(1) to go to the gym every day at 6 am.
(2) to buy groceries a couple times a week;
(3) to go out to dinner at Luigi's Cocina Restaurant (one of the nearest restaurants) once a week on Friday or Saturday night.
(4) to meet friends at an establishment with dancing and music a couple times a month (in the evening). (the nearest I could find is Palmers East); and
(5) to go to a hardware store, sporting goods store, or other specialty store a couple times a month.
How exactly would you accomplish this?
Lol, you got pretty close to the mark with your example.
...Ok, you can't live every lifestyle there. I guess there are people who want to go to a gym for the community factor instead of just exercise at home. And there are people who want to dance...
But if your demographic is "married mother of 4" then you have:
4+ playgrounds that are close enough that a toddler to walk to.
Elementary, Middle, and Preschool also within easy walking distance.
Community center within walking distance.
Library drop off/pick up within walking distance.
Really great crosswalks and sidewalks and good laws/culture that mean cars have to stop to let people cross the road at designated crosswalks.
As far as your specific requests:
(1) Anytime Fitness is a 24 hour gym that is a 12 min bike ride or half an hour walk.
(2) The QFC is a 12 minute bike ride, which tbh I don't know many people who want to walk with groceries but biking with a trailer is fine and meets the "no cars" point. And there are bike lanes and trails. If you want to walk it's about half an hour which isn't a bad walk either, though I wouldn't want to make it with a gallon of milk in each hand.
(3) Ixtapa is a much nicer restaurant and a very easy walk.
(4) Palmer's East is in Redmond Town Center? There's a bus pick up by Rosa Parks Elementary (about a 10 min walk from your selected house with a stroller) that goes straight to Redmond Town Center approx every 1 hour. (DART Route 224) This is a harder requirement because I don't think this is as popular an activity in the area. Most live shows are in Seattle proper, which is a pain to get to whether you're on bus, car, boat, or bicycle.
(5) Redmond Town Center also has a Guitar Center, does that count? Otherwise there's a lot of other cool things within easy walking distance of Redmond Town Center. Big 5 Sporting Goods, Zumiez, etc. Home Depot is a little further away but is that a thing that might be worth finding your friend with a truck anyway?
It's not just for the community factor. Working out at a gym gives you access to a much wider variety of equipment; you don't have to deal with the headaches of maintaining and replacing that equipment; and for a lot of people it's psychologically easier to exercise if there is a specific place where they go to do it.
I think this kind of proves my point. That's really not practical to do twice every morning, especially on a cold rainy morning in the dark during the winter. Especially if you are feeling sore or worn out after your workout.
That's a royal pain in the rear even if the weather is good. And that's assuming you are young, single, and fit. For your married mother of 4 with a 7 year old; a couple toddlers; and an infant? She's going to bike to the grocery story on a cold rainy day with all these children and be able to bring back a a few days worth of groceries?
22 minutes according to Google maps. If you are feeling tired and want to eat out, having to walk 45 minutes in dark, rain, and cold defeats the purpose. And that's assuming you are young, single, childless, and fit. For a family with small children? Seems impractical to me.
This seems wildly impractical to me. (It's a 15 minute drive by the way.)
According to Google Maps, Big 5 Sporting Goods is 38 minutes by bus (versus 14 minutes by car). Not to mention the pain in the rear factor of waiting at the bus stop, and having to accommodate yourself to the bus schedule. Versus just getting in your car whenever you want without waiting at the bus stop.
The bottom line is that it's simply not practical to live a normal suburban life in Redmond, Washington without a car. You'll spend lots and lots of extra time getting places and it's pretty much guaranteed that you will miss out on a lot of normal activities because it's just way to inconvenient to run out for 15 or 20 minutes the way you can with a car.
Edit: I should also mention that I haven't even talked about commuting to work.
I'm basically telling you I did this and you are still saying it's impractical.
Sure, by "impractical" I don't mean "impossible."
So for example, it's not impossible for a mother of 4 small children to bike a couple miles to a supermarket with her children on a cold rainy day; go shopping; and bike back with the groceries and the children. But it's pretty clearly impractical.
Here's what I had said before:
I'm certainly not claiming that it's impossible to live in the suburbs without a car.
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